


A Cut Above

by Teacup_Tempest



Category: Homestuck, MS Paint Adventures
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/F, Gen, Silly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-13
Updated: 2014-04-13
Packaged: 2018-01-19 04:07:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,833
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1454800
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Teacup_Tempest/pseuds/Teacup_Tempest
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kanaya is a incredibly successful fashion designer, preparing to take the world by storm, but there was one small problem. That problem's name was Terezi Pyrope.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Cut Above

**Author's Note:**

> Fashion AU Blackrom  
> Why did I write this again? Oh yeah, too much coffee and the idea from Imagination_Cake

As she adjusted the last pleat in her closing garment Kanya had to restrain her normally well controlled instinct to simply sew the damn thing onto the model and be done with it. Any normal fashion show and she would be gliding from station to station reapplying her lipstick occasionally as a reminder to all her assistants the consequences for anything less then perfection. But today wasn't a normal fashion show, no, SHE was here and Kanaya's pride demanded she handle things personally. The cost of failure was too great to entrust to anyone else.

 

Kanaya was just entering the prime of her career, settled enough to be a household name among the elite, but still edgy enough to not have to resort to selling ready-made garments in department stores. Her last exhibition in the Alternian Garment Gladiator Showcase had been met with excessive praise (and mortalities, but excellence has its own costs, at least her favorite three models survived using their stilettos to stab there way back down the cat walk.) This year she was hoping to make and even bigger splash and truly cement her position as the new name in troll garment craft, but there was one small problem. That problem's name was Terezi Pyrope.

 

Pyrope was an eccentric new up-and-comer and her edgy (figuratively and literally, Kanaya would give half her fangs to learn how she manged to get so many blades on a glove) fashion's were stealing all Kanaya's hype. Kanaya thought her designs were tacky, with colorblind palates and a worrying obsession with dragons, but for some unfathomable reason her works were the current talk of the town. Everyone coo-ed over her most recent collection "Scales",which Kanaya could somewhere deep in her vascular system admit was clever in its use accessories, and the hanging at the end was actually quite avant-garde. Unfortunately grudging respect changed to bitterness the minute after her first show, where Terezi preceded to comment that she had been "shocked by how bland and tasteless modern fashion had become" and continued to cite Kanaya's collection "Lacerations in Lace" as the pinnacle of "stale toast fashion." It seemed that Terezi intended to climb to the top of the woof-beast pile using Kanaya's corpse as leverage which would happen over her undead body.

 

Tightening the lacing on the cuffs and sharpening the pincers on the bustle of her final ensemble one last time, Kanya herded her models back to the waiting pens to wait for the show to begin. Kanaya smoothed her skirt in a detached, elegant way that didn't actually do much to hide her irritation as she mingled with the other designers. The social aspect of fashion was actually her least favorite part of her job. Smiling and exchanging niceties (or not so niceties, fashion wasn't one of the deadliest arts for nothing) with people who's jugulars weren't worth sipping before cutting was exhausting. At least after trading half-hearted jabs with a shoe designer who specialized in boots that could double as bludgeons she managed to calm her jangled nerves. Normally she wouldn't get so worked up before a show, she had confidence in her work which spoke for itself, but she couldn't afford to let Pyrope show her up in their first show together. Tonight she vowed she would show the smug upstart what true elegance was or die (again) trying.

 

Just as the lights dimmed and trolls started dashing for their seats before show began she heard a sharp barking laugh and turned around before nearly colliding with the bane of her current existence. Terezi wasn't a troll you could lose in a crowd very easily and tonight was no exception. She was all sharp angles and the pointed glasses she always wore were matched only in sharpness by her constant pointed grin, which she was favoring Kanaya with this very moment. Despite losing her sight in a unknown accident when she was younger Terezi was still unnervingly good at focusing in on faces and Kanaya stared directly back into her sightless eyes. They didn't really speak, there wasn't time to really get cutting, so Kanaya satisfied herself with a sharp smirk and haughty turn before elbowing her way to her seat near the apex of the purr-beast promenade. She didn't bother squashing the petty thrill she got that Terezi was seated somewhat father back in a far less prominent position. Terezi didn't seem to notice or care, but when she caught Kanaya looking back at (how did she do that?) she just grinned even wider then normal showing off her hypodermic needle smile. That was...not promising.

 

The lights clicked off leaving Kanaya in a literal as well as existential darkness as the spotlights turned to the stage and the first models where shoved shivering into the spotlight. Kanaya was barely able to pay attention to the stage and halfheartedly clapped along with the crowd, her mind was in turmoil. Something was wrong with this whole situation, Kanaya would bet her favorite chainsaw. For one she hadn't seen a single model from Terezi's line, and she was noted for dragging some around behind her at most times as punishment for one offense or another. Secondly she was dressed for more conservatively then normal, eye-searing teal and red was conservative by her standards anyway. Anything that she found worth dressing down for was disconcerting. Kanaya considered the impossible, just maybe Terezi is as anxious as she was.

 

Kanaya didn't have time for further musing because her own models where being shoved onto the stage now and she needed to see Pyrope's face. She didn't disappoint. At first she seemed to scrunch her nose in confusion and then did a double take. Kanya couldn't hold back her smug grin. She had dressed her models to the nine as usual in tasteful gothic styling, but each of them had the addition of a severed drake head hung around their neck. They had been a real bitch to catch and the models probably wouldn't survive with all the extra weight throwing them off, but some things are worth it. Terezi was known, even more then her obsession with strangulation based justice, for her love of dragons and most of her collections had some sort of reptilian motif. It appeared that finally, finally Kanaya had managed to break through Terezi's impenetrable grins and she was looking at her with a beautiful mix of anger and disgust. It didn't last for more than a second or two, before the grin was back in place with maybe a touch more determination then before, but Kanaya would savor that moment for a long time. The trolls seated in-between the two fashion designers who were glaring were looking back and forth and shooting them speculative glances that both ladies ignored. After all, this was fashion, when you made your living being on the cutting edge you got used to strange looks.

 

A few stuttered gasps caused Kanaya to drag her gaze from her fellow designer back to the stage where she had to do a double-take of her own with the models that Terezi had sent onto the stage. They were dripping in her usually excessive color choices and enough blades to open a discount armory chain. What was entirely shocking was the fact that every model was hosing the crowd down with color. Kanaya had only a second to look on dumbfounded while her own carefully chosen ensemble of the night was soaked with a slash of teal and orange before the model spraying it was beaten to death with a large-heeled boot. Kanaya could only look at her own clothes in muted horror completely ignoring the vigorous bloodshed (even more the usual wouldn't that give the papers something to discuss) surrounding her. She had been out edged by what was essential juvenile digit art and bloodsport, after she had spent mouths tracking down and beheading drakes and sewing that beastly organza into proper pleats! She had one of her favorite dresses marked by that damn upstart and she didn't even want to think about what had happened to her shoes.

 

Kanaya whipped her head around to the back and saw the pleased smile Terezi was shooting her from the back row and her vision went red. Next thing she knew she had pulled her chainsaw and cut a swath in the competition, in a far more literal way the usual, advancing towards her foe. Terezi had drawn her own cane-sword and they met in clash of steel and the flap of fabric. It took nearly fifteen minutes of frantic sparring and several pointed coughs for either troll to realize what exactly they were doing.

 

Sparring and cursing each others names. Clearly expressing a rivalry. In public.

 

Kanaya could barely hold back her mortification, she nearly lept backwards and sheathed her weapon so fast her lipstick might have still been buzzing. Suddenly things made a humiliating sort of sense. The long glares held over crowds, the near obsessive need to beat someone at their own game after what was really only a petty barb about her more pedestrian collections. Most damningly of all, the whole collection designed to piss off just one particular troll. Kanaya was running pitch for Terezi, and hard.

A similar realization must have hit Terezi because despite her attempt at her usual shameless smile, a light flush of embarrassment was creeping up her cheeks and making her face look so very, very punchable...No! Kanaya, focus!

 

Retreat seemed like the safest option at that point but before she could storm off and pretend that her little black PDA wasn't going to be all over the gossip leaflets tomorrow Terezi stopped her. She grabbed her by the shoulder, were all that blood was still smeared which sent a spike of hate straight through her now that Kanaya knew what to look for. Terezi seemed to look at her curiously from behind her shades, how she did all this without being able to see was baffling, and seeing...smelling something she patted her shoulder once. She then walked off without another word and Kanaya watched her retreat with a small feeling of disappointment, though what she had hoped for she couldn't put into words.

 

She retreated to the ablution block to rinse off the worst of the blood before it could stain and lick her literal and metaphorical wounds (Terezi was really skilled with that sword-cane) when she finally noticed something stuck to her shoulder. A small scrap of fabric of bright red was stuck to her shoulder, how had she missed that? She picked it off and turned it over and scrawled in black lipstick was a date and the coordinates for a field not far from her hive. Kanaya left the ablution block with a spring in her step and smirk on her face. She had just been challenged to her first duel.

 

Now, where could she find some scale-mail at such short notice?


End file.
